Women Mechanics
are part of unique calendar

June and September feature Nebraska Mechanics
from Nebraska Trucker, July 2007

by Nance Harris

Two of Nebraska's fine young diesel technicians wound up as calendar girls, thanks to a Nebraska Trucking Driver of the Month who offered assistance to a stranded motorcycle rider in Wyoming.

27-year-old artist and motorcycle mechanic Sarah Lyon of Louisville, Kentucky, was traveling cross country during 2006, working on a project to photograph female mechanics for a calendar. A different sort of calendar than one usually associates with a notable brand of tools on the wall in a parts department. A calendar that would salute women who have taken up wrenches with skill and abandon. "Women like myself," Lyons explains, but not at all in a boastful way.

Lyon has worked both as a part-time motorcycle mechanic and as a carpenter. She enjoyed learning the skills, but missed the company of other women doing the same sort of work. "I didn't mind working in environments with only men," she writes. "But I often was treated as an anomaly during my initial experiences in the workplace and sometimes even throughout the duration of the job. I wanted to know how other women dealt with the variety of pressures in these situations."

She articulated her intention to create something that represented women in a positive way, "meeting women who love the challenge of fixing machines." Challenge, indeed. Lyon's motorcycle fuel tank had flash rust right before she was to start her trip. She didn't want to miss appointments across the country. So she cleaned the carburetors, installed in-line fuel filters, packed her tools and crossed her fingers. "Everything happens for a reason, right?" she asks.

Lyon's motorcycle broke down from clogged fuel filters on a remote stretch of Wyoming highway during a rainstorm. Crete Carrier driver Chris Alatsas, a resident of Washington state, stopped to help and gave her a ride to town. He also told Lyon about the two Lincoln-based female mechanics who had worked on his truck.

That's how Brandie Jones, diesel technician with Lincoln Truck Center, and Chrissy Reifschneider, a diesel technician and fabricator at Crete Carrier Corp. in Lincoln, happened to join the ranks of car, aircraft and motorcycle mechanics on the pages of Lyon's calendar. Reifschneider is featured in June, Jones in September. Each double-page spread has multiple photos of the women at work, along with a brief story about how they got started in their trade.

Included at the back of the calendar is a journal of the project. In it, Lyon fondly recalls the hot cup of coffee Alatsas offered her, and his obsession with safety. "His sincerity was a reminder that not everyone is out to get you on the road," Lyon wrote.

Lyon had such a great experience connecting with female mechanics in 2006 that she hopes to produce another calendar. She's already been notified that there's a female technician at one of the Kansas Truck Center locations, so there's a chance diesel tech will once again be represented as part of Lyon's work.

Founding a tribe

You might assume that creating wall calendars of female mechanics is a bit of a lark-flattering for those highlighted and a great excuse for a road trip to practice your other area of interest, photography.

But there's something deeper at work. Dr. Beverly Daniel Tatum, a developmental psychologist and president of Spelman College in Atlanta, wrote a book exploring why high school and college students of the same race tend to stick together. To oversimplify her thesis a little, young people at that age are exploring their place in the world in terms of identity, values and future vocations. They stick together as a way of establishing and affirming their identities before moving beyond the group to experience what the larger world has to offer.

Because not many high school girls have ever met a female mechanic, they affirm an identity that doesn't include that option. Only the strong and independent will venture beyond. Lyon did, and now she's pulling together a tribe of her own invention.

As the Lyon tribe grows, they will become more and more visible as role models for young women with a knack for fixing machines. In the long run, that translates into more diesel technicians available to fix your trucks.

You can see sample pages from the 2007 calendar, and order a copy, at www.sarahlyon.com. If you know any female mechanics, you can pass along contact information through studio@sarahlyon.com, or call her at 502-558-3230.